planned obsolescence

[howabout2]

He might need to use a PCL5 driver then.

According to the 'pedia, PCL6 was introduced in 1995: Printer Command Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Speaking of the video, it reminds me of something that happened to me just the other day. My workstation's primary monitor, a 30" Dell LCD, had its backlight fail. When the monitor is powered on, you can still see the user interface if you shine a flashlight directly at the screen. I called up Dell to ask about a backlight replacement. Their advice is to discard the monitor and replace it. Even when I asked the technician to confirm that with a manager, he quickly returned with confirmation, claiming the bulb and inverter board simply cannot be replaced without replacing the whole LCD panel. He asked if I would like assistance finding a replacement monitor; to which I responded politely that they are crazy and ended the call.

Obviously discarding this monitor would be ridiculous. To this day, four years after I purchased it, assuming it had a working backlight, it would fetch $700 on eBay.

Calling local repair shops quickly revealed that the replacement bulbs are fairly cheap (less than $50) and even if the inverter board has failed, that's less than $150. Unfortunately, they don't yet sell LED backlight retrofit kits for this size monitor.

 

[Tech26]

Thank you for posting up the video. As stated before; very eye opening. I'm trying to stretch the life of my laptop out a bit farther, mostly because I'm broke. But now I can tell people I'm fighting planned obsolesence! I can use the same argument for my old Toyota too That is, up until I replace it with a Tesla. The Roadster and the Model S should hold value well as long as they have a good battery pack. I think any vehicle that is reliable in old age will still be worth something to someone who needs a car.

 

[richkae]

There is a large unplanned obsolence that is looming upon ICE cars.
The operating cost is increasing as gas prices rise.
In a few years gasoline could hit $10 per gallon in the US.
At that point, an old ICE car that gets 25mpg costs you $4800 per year to go 12000 miles.
A less old ICE car that gets 40mpg costs $3000 per year to go 12000 miles.
The car makers are going to have to aggressively improve fuel economy for their products to be viable at all, making older cars with poor fuel economy near worthless.

Sometimes the operating environment changes and makes old products ( that still function as intended ) obsolete.

 

[widodh]

There is a large unplanned obsolence that is looming upon ICE cars.
The operating cost is increasing as gas prices rise.
In a few years gasoline could hit $10 per gallon in the US.
At that point, an old ICE car that gets 25mpg costs you $4800 per year to go 12000 miles.
A less old ICE car that gets 40mpg costs $3000 per year to go 12000 miles.
The car makers are going to have to aggressively improve fuel economy for their products to be viable at all, making older cars with poor fuel economy near worthless.

Sometimes the operating environment changes and makes old products ( that still function as intended ) obsolete.

It is happening every where.

I have an Audi A3 2.0TDI from 2007 standing still (working perfectly!), but due to tax regulations it was cheaper to buy a Toyota Auris Hybrid then driving for a couple of more years with the Audi.

Yes, the Auris has a lower tail emission then the A3, but does it weigh up against the CO2 (and other stuff) emitted for producing the new car? No, I don't think so.

But just due to tax regulations I bought a new car.

I really watch with what I dispose, food, equipment, everything. I feel guilty for buying 5 new Wireless access points for the office here and throwing 5 brand new, never used CD's with drivers in the bin because they came with the AP.

But it is everywhere, economic growth has to go on! I often get into a "fight" with one of the co-owners of my company (he's the financial guy). He is always pursuing more growth and doesn't care about the waste we produce.

I however do feel that people are getting more and more aware of this. Time will tell

 

[stopcrazypp]

but does it weigh up against the CO2 (and other stuff) emitted for producing the new car

That actually doesn't apply in the general case (and is a common misconception). See article below.
http://www.globalchangeblog.com/201...-how-does-that-compare-to-tailpipe-emissions/

Car production/disposal/recycling makes up only about 20-30% of lifetime emissions in the general case (10 year lifetime).

 

[dpeilow]

Yes I recall reading that production typically accounted for about 30,000km equivalent of CO2 emissions

 

[zack]

Wow! What an eye opener. We have all run into the fact that you can’t get things repaired anymore. I recently had a 3 year old flat screen Samsung fail. Luckily, like the printer guy in the video, I was able to find guidance on the internet. Looked on a circuit board, the failed capacitor revealed itself by its swollen top and for a couple of dollars, the TV was back in service. Otherwise, I would have had to buy a new one.

I met a guy who was augmenting his income by buying up old flatscreens and monitors that had a lot of value when new and replacing failed caps. In many instances he got them for free just for picking them up. There was a particular model of computer screen that was notorious for failing and was large and expensive, and he made most of his money off those because the problem was always exactly the same and the fix was less than 10 minutes and a couple of high-temp caps.

And speaking of, all electrolytics could be high-temp at this point. There's only pennies of difference between the 85C and 105C versions, but of course, by installing the low-temp versions in high-temp products, you have instant planned obsolescence. And save a few cents in the process.

 

[TEG]

There is an interesting (and somewhat disturbing) back-story behind a lot of the capacitor failures:

Capacitor plague - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Badcaps.net - What Causes This

 

[zack]

Ack!!!